Hella Santarossa

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Hella De Santarossa (center) and J. Beuys (left) discuss with squatters, 1982, Berlin

Hella Santarossa , since 2002 also Hella De Santarossa (born June 12, 1949 in Düsseldorf- Kaiserswerth) is a German painter , glass artist, sculptor , photographer and filmmaker . Her works are attributed to the Neo-Expressionism of the Junge Wilde and can be found among others. a. in the Berlin Reichstag , in public places, in churches, museums and art collections. She lives and works as a freelance cross-art artist in Berlin .

Live and act

Hella De Santarossa, née Hildegard Derix, comes from a family of glass painters and artists. The father Wilhelm Derix managed the family business Derix in the third generation , which had a pontifical privilege for church and secular art. De Santarossa worked early on in the family business.

Exhibition poster for the series "Fahrradbilder", 1979

In 1969, after three years of apprenticeship at the Hadamar School of Glass, she obtained her diploma as a state-certified glass painter with distinction. From 1970 to 1972 De Santarossa worked as a factory educator , and in 1973 she moved to Berlin. Until 1979 she studied painting under Professor Karl-Horst Hödicke at the Hochschule der Künste West Berlin and graduated in 1979 as a master class student. By this time De Santarossa was already deeply intertwined with the West Berlin cultural scene. In 1978 she was a founding member of the Galerie am Moritzplatz , where she exhibited her series "Fahrradbilder" in 1979, and from 1982 to 1992 artist chairwoman of the Künstlerhaus Bethanien.

In addition to fine art, Hella Santarossa, whose daughter Maya was born in 1968, was also interested in glass art from the start. Among other things, she created commissioned work for the Hotel Intercontinental in Geneva, a window wall for the foyer of the press club in Bonn , the windows in the entrance area of ​​the Messe Berlin , the Renaissance Theater Berlin , and the entrance hall of the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin (the latter has now been lost) .

In the 1970s, Santarossa belonged to the “ Junge Wilde ” group of artists at the university and developed an understanding of art early on, which, against all odds, made the transgression of style and material boundaries part of the work. In the following years she also worked as a photographer, filmmaker and performance artist and quickly gained international fame.

After completing her studies, she received scholarships from numerous international and national foundations. In 1979 she received the Annette-Kade-Scholarship, in 1980 a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service , in 1982 the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Scholarship and in 1983 a scholarship at the Villa Massimo in Rome . In between, numerous other stays abroad for study and teaching purposes became possible, including in 1979 at the Art Institute in San Francisco with the study of experimental film . It was there that the film essay "And then comes the Pacific" and three short experimental films, which were shown at the Berlinale in 1981 , were made. In the years 1980-83, stays in Florence , Rome and Olevano followed, and in 1984 a five-month trip to Brazil at the invitation of the Goethe-Instituts in Brasilia , Curitiba , Bahia and Rio de Janeiro . Since 1982 Hella De Santarossa has also been a visiting professor, including in 1982 at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin , 1984 at the Art Academy Oslo , 1986 at the Slade School, London and in 1992 at the College of the Arts, Sydney and the Fine Art School, Melbourne . From 1987 to 1996 she also managed the business of the parents' company. At the same time, she continued to work as an artist and took part in international exhibitions, including the 18th São Paulo Biennale in 1985 and the 2nd Buenos Aires Biennale in 2002. In 1987 she won the competition announced by the Berlin Senate Department for Building and Housing for the redesign of Theodor-Heuss-Platz with her design of the glass fountain sculpture “Blue Obelisk” (completed in 1995). Numerous other awards, prizes and commissioned work followed, including for glass windows in churches . In 1988 she created the painting “red and white cart” about the history of social democracy, which has been in the SPD parliamentary group in the Reichstag building in Berlin since 2001 .

The subject of her work was and is projects that transcend national borders and manifest themselves internationally in various places. Current projects include the implementation of a global network of obelisks in a worldwide network.

Work and reception

In the art discussion on conceptual issues that began in Germany from 1970 onwards, it was mainly Georg Baselitz and Markus Lüpertz as well as KH Hödicke who worked on a figurative, objective style that was oriented towards Expressionism in its formal design . Hella Santarossa incorporated these developments into her work. Her works were not only characterized by the expressive, figurative ( neo-expressionist ) style, but also the crossing of style and material boundaries - a way of working that later became more widely accepted under the catchphrase " cross-art ".

Rim-ram-rum series, created 1988–98, mixed media on canvas, 140 × 160 cm

With their spontaneous, violent painting, the “ Junge Wilde ” corresponded to the zeitgeist of the early eighties and were subsequently exhibited by international gallery owners. Hella Santarossa was one of the first German artists to present the new Berlin art direction in 1980 at the Goethe-Institut in California . Her participation with "Schlagerbildern" and "Hitpaintings" in 1982 in the supporting program of Documenta 7 in Kassel marked another station in her artistic work. In theme-oriented cycles, she dealt with the respective environment: Her trip to Brazil in 1985 could then be recreated in the exhibition “Hot Earth” in her native Berlin. The “Blue Series”, a cycle of figurative images, shows a further development of the artist away from the era of “wild painting” and towards color energy and virtuoso vitality.

The “Rim-Ram-Rum” series that followed in 1988/1989 was also a design study for the art glazing in the exhibition hall in Berlin . Without ground contact, mostly couples move about, sometimes accompanied by attributive objects.

Since 1989 Hella De Santarossa felt in her work the political upheavals of the turnaround time for. The empirical reality is made present in her works from this period in two ways: in photographic and painterly form. Imaginative and emotionally charged art performances followed, from the 'setting to music' by the then director of the Berlin Philharmonic with sound, to the temporary installation of a light spire on the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin.

1 + 1 + 1 = 1, light installation for the Ecumenical Church Congress, 2003 on the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church , Berlin

From the 1990s onwards, numerous glass art works followed, including the windows of the Heiliggeistkirche in Heidelberg and those of the Simon-Petrus-Kirche in Bremen . De Santarossa also made the central window of the Catholic Church of St. Florian , to this day Europe's largest glass picture, in the Ecumenical Church Center in Munich-Riem in 2005. The play with light, which she masters in the design of church windows, is essential for De Santarossa .

Glass work in churches (including Heiliggeistkirche in Heidelberg , St.Florian in Munich-Riem ):

Hella De Santarossa's works "Tautropfen shimmer im Netz" (2010), " Crazy love " (1981), " Philosophen - Obelsik " (1998), " 2 + 2 = 1 " (1990), " In Trans Luc IV " (2005 ), " Rotglut" in Berlin " (1981)," Ressourectio "(2002)," Muchacha "(1981)," Venus rises from the water "(1984)," En manege "(2010)," Self-portrait "(1978) , " European Elite " (1996 - 2000) " Think Tank " (1996 - 2000) are exhibited in the museum FLUXUS + in Potsdam.

Super woman in the fairytale forest, Amazon group, 2012

Crossart

“Crossart”, the transgression of style and material boundaries, characterizes Hella De Santarossa's way of working. Her work is exemplary across all media - as an avant-garde early cross-art artist, she combines painting , film , actionist painterly performance and glass art and creates imaginative, future-oriented symbols and memorials in windows, on walls, on streets and squares.

In her work she has repeatedly faced everyday life and refers to different social and political fields: Feminism, anarchic pink government, political images of Germany, urban life and the green nature and spirituality of the technically sophisticated church windows interpenetrate. All of this can be found in a variety of shapes and colors in her often explosive images and her experimentally designed Crossart, which primarily conveys emotions instead of reproducing familiar symbols.

Mary's window in the Christ Pavilion , contribution to Expo 2000

Awards

Exhibitions (selection)   

Web links

Commons : Hella Santarossa  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Santarossa Hella and Andrea Cornelsen (eds.): Berlin, Umsteige-Bahnhof: Transitwerke von Hella Santarossa. Exhibition in the Orangery Berlin, Charlottenburg Palace, April 19 to May 27, 1996., accompanying publication . 1996.
  2. ↑ Hella De Santarossa - museumFLUXUS. Retrieved May 7, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Santarossa, Hella
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf